Putin thanks UAE president for role in prisoner exchange

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday thanked his UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for the role played by the Emirates in negotiating prisoner releases with Ukraine.

“I´d like to thank you for your role in resolving humanitarian problems, including those involving prisoner exchanges,” Putin told Sheikh Mohamed as he welcomed him to his residency near Moscow.

Moscow and Kiev on Friday announced that they had swapped 95 prisoners each following negotiations led directly by the UAE.

The two countries have exchanged hundreds of POWs since Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, with the various accords being mediated by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye.

Sheikh Mohamed arrived on Sunday in Russia ahead of a summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies starting on Tuesday in the southwestern city of Kazan.

Putin said he would be discussing the Ukraine conflict with Sheikh Mohamed, and the two will hold a more formal bilateral meeting on Monday.

Relations between the UAE and Russia have grown closer in recent years, with Putin saying that their bilateral trade had tripled in the past three years to 10 billion euros ($11.1 billion). “We still have a lot to do,” said the Emirati leader, according to a transcript provided by Russian news agencies.

Putin visited the UAE in December 2023, one of his rare overseas visits since he was hit with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in March 2023 for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.

The United States has accused some UAE-based banks of helping Russia evade Western sanctions, and has threatened to punish them if they continue.